NYT Corrects 161-Year-Old Article on ’12 Years a Slave’ Author

The New York Times this week corrected two misspellings 161 years after they appeared in an account of Solomon Northup, the free man sold into slavery whose memoir inspired the Oscar-winning film “12 Years a Slave.”

The correction reads: “An article on Jan. 20, 1853, recounting the story of Solomon Northup, whose memoir ‘12 Years a Slave’ became a movie 160 years later that won the best picture Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday night, misspelled his surname as Northrop. And the headline misspelled it as Northrup. The errors came to light on Monday after a Twitter user pointed out the article in The Times archives. (The errors notwithstanding, The Times described the article as ‘a more complete and authentic record than has yet appeared.’)”